The case illustrates the challenges faced by a marketing manager when designing, implementing and evaluating trade promotion schemes in a highly competitive, fast moving, consumer goods multinational company in the emerging Asian market of India. The purpose of the case is to provide exposure to the complexities and dynamic context of Asian consumer goods marketing and learn how to design, implement and evaluate trade promotion schemes that are aligned with the branding, marketing communication and marketing strategy of the product/brand. The case illustrates marketing decisions and their implementation in the Indian market for snack foods, where factors such as products at small price points, constant product and brand innovation, and effective design of trade promotion and merchandising schemes are critical in gaining and retaining market share.
This technical note is part of a course module that focuses on teaching design-thinking skills and 10 tools to identify and implement innovation and growth opportunities. It can be taught to MBA, undergraduate, or executive groups. The note and its accompanying teaching note includes an explanation of why design thinking is a useful addition to a business curriculum, an outline for a 15-session course, a description of the 10 design tools taught, and a set of student exercises to practice them. It also summarizes a series of 10 video interviews with leading designers and teachers that are available for free on the designing at Darden website.
Lamont, a private golf club, had survived another year, but things weren't like the good old days, when waiting lists to join were long, environmental issues were not front and centre, and outside tournaments as a source of revenue were plentiful. The general manager has to work through a changing environment and the current situation at Lamont to set a new direction for the club. How is the club to grow, given old and new clubs drawing existing and potential members away from Lamont, declining corporate budgets to support golf outings, and competition for charity tournaments and events such as weddings? How could the general manager deliver the expected profits with costs increasing by at least 10 per cent per year?
Lamont, a private golf club, had survived another year, but things weren't like the good old days, when waiting lists to join were long, environmental issues were not front and centre, and outside tournaments as a source of revenue were plentiful. The general manager has to work through a changing environment and the current situation at Lamont to set a new direction for the club. How is the club to grow, given old and new clubs drawing existing and potential members away from Lamont, declining corporate budgets to support golf outings, and competition for charity tournaments and events such as weddings? How could the general manager deliver the expected profits with costs increasing by at least 10 per cent per year?
Fundescola is an educational reform introduced in Brazil in the first decade of the 21st century. It was introduced after Brazil's successful educational access reforms in the 1990s led to skyrocketing enrollment rates, leaving schools unprepared and under-resourced. This led to problems with education quality, especially in poorer communities and poorer states in the North-East. Fundescola was developed by the Federal Government and the World Bank in response. It blended decentralization of funds to schools with the adoption of various new management practices-like strategic planning-to make the schools more effective in providing education. The intervention was subjected to various World Bank evaluations and generally presented as a success. HKS Case Number 1928.1
The owner of a small home and garden shop in Chaguanas, Trinidad is faced with declining sales and the recent entry of a competitor offering similar products at competitive prices. In order to compete, he is thinking of moving to a larger location and expanding his business to capitalize on emerging opportunities, such as the demand for landscaping services by wealthy professionals. He is uncertain how his current customers would react to such a move and is considering what kind of marketing activities he should engage in to ensure the business's long-term survival.
Since the first KFC opened in China in 1987, Yum--under Sam Su's leadership--had built the largest restaurant company by far in mainland China. Averaging one new restaurant opening a day for the past five years, in 2010 Yum ran over 3,600 restaurants in 650 cities and employed over 250,000 people, many of them college students in their first jobs. In the third quarter of 2010, Yum China's revenues surpassed U.S. revenues for the first time and many analysts expected that Yum's China business--driven by a rapidly growing middle class--would be twice as large as its U.S. business within five years. But before rushing out to open thousands more stores, Su wondered what the company should do to forestall some of the problems plaguing the fast food industry in the West.
Fortis Industries' packaging division manufactures steel and plastic strapping. In 2007, the company underwent a leveraged buyout. The case focuses on the packaging division's need to maintain high profitability in a declining market for steel strapping. Since 1998, Fortis has been losing 1% per year of the steel strapping market. Since then, there has also been significant erosion of prices. The division president is faced with 1) decreasing price to increase market share, or 2) maintain/increase cash flow. The specific decision revolves around the potential adoption of a price-flex system that is designed to authorize selective discounting by the division's sales personnel.
Describes whether the company adopts the price-flex policy discussed in the (A) case. Price increase in steel strapping raw materials is rescinded by steel industry.
In 2010, Logoplaste, a top 10 manufacturer of rigid plastic containers, was debating a more dramatic expansion strategy as a means to guarantee the company's continued success. The company, which began with a few plants in Portugal in the 1990s, now had 60 plants across five continents and was a valued partner to large multinational consumer goods companies, many of which were pressuring Logoplaste to expand.
Despite a rough start in the Japanese telecom market, by late 2003, Vodafone seemed to have weathered the storm, largely based on the strength of their mobile phone unit. But was it simply the calm before the storm?
By 2005, Vodafone Group was losing its footing in the sophisticated Japanese telecom market. What were they doing wrong? Should they cut their losses and leave Japan, or could they learn from mistakes and turn things around?
The case describes the strategic moves of Airbus in the twin-aisle-twin segment following Boeing's announcement of the launch of its 787 Dreamliner. Airbus's clients initially reacted negatively to the strategic response by criticizing the design. By the end of 2006, however, there were positive signs that the new design, the A350 XWB, would be able to find its market. The formal industrial launch had not yet been made and the A350 management office had been asked to prepare a series of proposals to the board of EADS regarding the next steps.
Toyota, the world's leading automotive company and a global benchmark for quality and continuous improvement stumbled seriously. They faced a recall crisis unlike any they had seen before. Mr. Akio Toyoda, Toyota's president and grandson of the founder, was called to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about the company's response to the recall. Through the lens of the accelerator crisis, the case documents trade-offs Toyota made while pursuing a marketing strategy based on quality and customer experience, while simultaneously pursing an operational generic cost leadership strategy. Historic information tracks the evolution of the company's early focus on lean manufacturing, quality, and the customer to the contemporary focus on aggressive cost control and rapid globalization; it also traces the factors that shaped the context in which the product failures occurred; and documents the failure of Toyota to respond appropriately and with sufficient speed. The case discusses Toyota's evolution from a small entrepreneurial family firm to global industry giant status; their role in driving industry-wide lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and quality, known as the Toyota Way; their responses to a series of highly visible product failures; and the resultant erosion of Toyota's reputation. The case concludes with Akio Toyoda exhausted from his testimony, considering which combination of strategic, structural, or cultural challenges led to the current recall crisis. Had the company lost sight of its long-term philosophy, a key principle behind the Toyota Way? Had Toyota sacrificed quality and their historic customer focus at the expense of extreme cost reductions? Were nonfamily managers truly to blame for "hijacking" Toyota? What role did Toyota's supply chain and keiretsu structure play in the recalls? Or was Toyota simply subject to the latest media witch hunt in the wake of the global economic crisis?
Various mergers and acquisitions in the Indian information technology (IT) sector had resulted in the newly formed Mahindra Satyam (Mahindra) and the recently appointed chief compliance officer (CCO) was to develop a corporate governance structure that would address and repair previous mismanagement of the company. The CCO also functioned as the chief operating officer (COO) with profit centre responsibility for business verticals. His largest task as the CCO was to restore trust in the company and solidify its future among various stakeholders by bringing back integrity and transparency to the business. The CCO had to consider several criteria: What should his priorities be? What processes could be developed that would ensure corporate governance? What were the metrics with which the company could track the progress in corporate governance?
This note contains a verbatim transcript between an MBA student and a practicing manager and can be used to identify the speaker's values, attitude, beliefs, and expectations (VABEs). Seeing, examining, understanding, and evaluating one's own VABEs is a precursor to becoming an effective leader of others.
Investment manager Eliza Baena confronts an apparent convertible bond arbitrage opportunity when she notices a narrowing spread between two Boston Properties (BXP) bonds, one a convertible bond and the other a straight bond, in the wake of the 2008 Lehman bankruptcy. Baena must decide if there is an opportunity, how to structure a trade to exploit it, and how much of her fund's capital to allocate. Case exposition includes descriptions of basic financing arrangements that support arbitrage strategies, such as rehypothecation and margin lending.
The B case briefly recounts the action that investment manager Eliza Baena takes in the matter of the Boston Properties (BXP) bonds described in the A case. She must decide what to do next.